Don McLean

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For the British comedian see Don Maclean.

Don McLean, (born October 2, 1945 in New Rochelle, New York) is an American singer-songwriter, most famous for his 1971 ballad "American Pie", about an event known as The Day the Music Died.

Other well-known songs include

"And I Love You So" - covered by Elvis Presley, a 1973 hit for Perry Como
"Vincent" (a tribute to the 19th century Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh)
"Castles in the Air"
"Winterwood"

A poem about McLean, "Killing Me Softly With His Blues" by Lori Lieberman, was reworked into a song called "Killing Me Softly" by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. Lieberman was the first to record it (in 1971), but the song has two far better-known covers. The first major hit version was by Roberta Flack in 1973; nearly a quarter-century later (1996), another version was a major hit for The Fugees.

In 1981, he had an international number one hit with the Roy Orbison classic, "Crying". Orbison himself once described McLean as "the voice of the century", and a subsequent re-recording of the song saw Orbison incorporate elements of McLean's version.

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